Lifeforce Harmonics- a new vision of human consciousness

Life Energy and Abundance

There are many names for the energy that powers your life, chi, life-force, prana and vital spark are but a few, here I will simply call it life. Life energy provides the power for you to move, breathe, digest food, think, experience, feel, imagine and exist as a being. This energy is depleted by the act of living, but can also be replenished. In a sense we have an internal battery which stores this energy and when the charge gets low we suffer from low energy. We need to take some time out to ‘recharge our batteries’ and this usually consists of some form of recreation, fun or healing.

If our batteries get critically low, or even flat, this can have an effect on all levels of our being- we start by becoming tired, moody, accident prone and may have ‘bad luck’ financially or have relationship and work problems. If we do not recharge our batteries at this stage we can become physically ill, develop mental illnesses such as depression, lose our jobs, become bankrupt and end relationships.

If the situation continues we desperately try to grab energy from anywhere we can, usually from those closest to us, we literally become draining. When this fails to provide us with enough life energy we sink further and may even die. The more depleted we become, the more difficult it is to recharge our batteries or even utilise the energy we grab. It is analogous to a car battery that goes flat, to begin with it can be recharged, but if left for a long period of time it becomes incapable of recharging. This can be seen in physical diseases such as ME, CFS, post viral syndrome and in mental diseases such as depression and agoraphobia.

When our batteries are in good working order and are just a little depleted, then recharging them can be as simple as a walk in the park or dinner with friends, but there becomes a point when this will not recharge your batteries. This is when techniques such as meditation and complementary therapies become useful. These techniques work by either trying to fix your battery by moving energy blockages (shiatsu, acupuncture are good examples) or try to top up your battery with a supercharger- such as with Reiki.

Everybody has their own recipe for recharging their batteries. Some get their energy from a rock concert, others from rock climbing! It is important to know what your sources are. You can tell what energises you as it makes you feel alive. Some things will energise you more than others, you may find watching a film leaves you uplifted, but climbing a mountain and looking at the view makes you feel ecstatic, inspired and bursting with energy.

Life energy has a natural flow related to your most important needs. This can be illustrated by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Imagine your energy battery is a barrel of water and that there are taps at various heights on the barrel. The bottom tap will be for basic security and needs such as shelter, food and drink. The next tap will be the well-being and health of your physical body, maintaining all your body systems and being free of physical illnesses. The next tap will be your psychological well being and the experience of positive states such as joy and peace, and if the water is not high enough in the barrel to reach this tap you will suffer from anxiety, depression and other mental disorders. Next will be your sociological well being, such as positive relationships with family, friends and colleagues. It is not until you get near the top of the barrel that the higher needs are catered for, such as appreciation of art, the ability to be inspired, the ability to excel. To fulfil your human potential you need to have a fully charged battery!

If we extend this analogy further you will see that there are some people with devastating physical illnesses, but have excellent mental health and overcome the odds to fulfil their potential. In these people it is not that their battery is flat, far from it, they are usually brimming with energy. In this case it is like a blocked tap rather than a lack of energy.

Having a fully charged battery and a good source of energy is what leads to abundance on all levels. Abundance of health, positive emotions, nourishing relationships and of course money. Money is a form of energy, financial energy, and there are many ways to obtain it, most consist of converting your life energy into it. A good example is earning money by working, you put in your time, literally your life energy, and it is converted to money.

Some jobs have a really good conversion rate whilst others leave you depleted for little reward. The best work is that which inspires you as it replenishes your life energy, people who do this sort of work report that it is not like work at all. Often this sort of inspiring work leads to positive feedback and the energy builds up to enormous proportions, think of successful authors, musicians, actors or athletes. Wage slave jobs on the other hand, deplete your life energy quickly and for only a minimal financial return. People doing these jobs often become ill as they work long, draining hours just to afford basic needs.

If you want to live a full and abundant life, find out what energises you the most. Generally life is replenished from nature, some find most alive in mountain areas, whilst others at the ocean. Look for what makes you feel alive, inspired, awake and ecstatic, these are the places you will find life energy. Avoid or change situations that leave you feeling drained or depressed, whether it is your job, location, associates, partner, lifestyle or diet. Modern society tries to hide this basic truth to keep people bound to wage slavery and there is no end of energy vultures out there (be especially careful on the Internet!) Be intuitive, you will soon learn to identify what nourishes you and what depletes you. Even if your situation seems hopeless, you can live consciously and slowly build up your reserves. Remember positive thinking and dreaming are not enough by themselves, you need to find nourishment and guard your life energy.

Originally posted on the Tribe of the Phoenix blog

Woman Hasn’t Used Money Or Credit in 15 Years

Heidemarie Schwermer, a 69-year-old woman from Germany, gave up using money 15 years ago and says she’s been much happier ever since.
Heidemarie’s incredible story began 22 years ago, when she, a middle-aged secondary school teacher emerging from a difficult marriage, took her two children and moved to the city of Dortmund, in Germany’s Ruhr area. One of the first things she noticed was the large number of homeless people, and this shocked her so much that she decided to actually do something about it. She had always believed the homeless didn’t need actual money to be accepted back into society, only a chance to empower themselves by making themselves useful, so she opened a Tauschring (swap shop), called “Gib und Nimm” (Give and Take).
Her small venture was a place where anyone could trade stuff and skills for other things and skills they needed, without a single coin or banknote changing hands. Old clothes could be traded in return for kitchen appliances, and car service rendered in return for plumbing services, and so on. The idea didn’t really attract many of Dortmund’s homeless, because, as some of them told her to her face, they didn’t feel an educated middle-class woman could relate to their situation. Instead, her small shop was assaulted by many of the city’s unemployed and retired folk eager to trade their skills and old stuff for something they needed. Heidemarie Schwermer’s Tauschring eventually became somewhat of a phenomenon in Dortmund and even prompted its creator to ask herself some questions about the life she was living.
She started to realize she was living with a lot of stuff she didn’t really need and initially decided not to buy anything else without giving something away. Then she realized how unhappy she was with her work and made the connection between this feeling and the physical symptoms (backache and constant illness) she was feeling, so she decided to take up other jobs. She began washing dishes for 10 Deutchmarks an hour, and despite many were telling her things like “You went to university, you studied to do this?”, she felt good about herself, and didn’t feel like she should be valued more because of her studies than someone working in a kitchen. By 1995, the Tauschring had changed her life so much that she was spending virtually nothing, as everything she needed seemed to find its way into her life.
So in 1996. she took the biggest decision of her life: to live without money. Her children had moved out so she sold the apartment in Dortmund and decided to live nomadically, trading things and services for everything she needed. It was supposed to be a 12-month experiment, but found herself loving it so much that she just couldn’t give it up. 15 years later, she still lives according to the principles of Gib und Nimm, doing various chores for accommodation in the houses of various members of the Tauschring, and loving every minute of it. Schwermer has written two books about her experience of living without money and asked her publisher to give the money to charity so it can make many people happy instead of just one. She’s just happy being healthier and better off than ever before.
All of her belongings fit into a single-back suitcase and a rucksack, she has emergency savings of €200 and any other money she comes across, she gives away. Heidemarie doesn’t even have health insurance as she didn’t want to be accused of stealing from the state, and says she relies on the power of self-healing whenever she gets a little sick.

Octopus Morse Code

It is easy to send Morse Code when you are an Octopus with eight arms!













CW OPS Whip Whippersnapper Text Messengers on National TV
It may have been Friday the Thirteenth, but it was a lucky day for Morse code--and particularly for veteran CW contest ops Chip Margelli, K7JA, and Ken Miller, K6CTW. During a May 13 appearance on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the pair was able to pass a message using good old fashioned Morse code more rapidly than a pair of teenaged text messengers equipped with modern cell phones. The victory, which replicated a similar challenge that took place recently in Australia, has provided immense encouragement to Amateur Radio's community of CW operators, who been ballyhooed the achievement all over the Internet. The text messaging team consisted of world text-messaging champ Ben Cook of Utah and his friend Jason. Miller said afterward in a reflector posting that the CW team won fairly handily.

The Great Transition

Below is a very interesting talk by Storm Alteryus at the UK PROBE conference in blackpool. It is about the earth changes and the new tribal society.

Guided Meditation- The Milky Way

This guided meditation takes you on a journey to a corroboree, a ceremonial gathering of tribal people, who are dancing around a camp fire. They invite you to join in and take you walking up the Milky way, where you meet some angelic beings who heal you with sparkly light!

How the Kangaroo got its pouch

This is an Aboriginal Australian dreamtime story about how the kangaroo got its pouch in reward for kindness showed to an old wombat. It is typical of the creation stories of Aboriginal Australia, which often have a moral aspect to them.



This story was published in Stories from the Billabong

The Priestess of Gaia

In this vision of the future, a priestess travels to the Milky Way in an extraterrestrial craft controled by thought. She meets with her spirit guide and other beings from across the galaxy.

The Scared Well

We recently made a video of our local sacred well, Coventy Well, on the Torrington Commons.

Torrington Cavaliers set the castle on fire!

The Green Man

The Green Man story represents a return to nature. I have created my own version of the story based on one told to me by a storyteller, as is normal in the oral story telling community. Feel free to take the main points of this tale and use them to create your own Green Man story. 

It was a long an arduous journey across very difficult terrain. On horseback I travelled many miles in the searing heat of the summer sun and to cut my journey short decided to travel through the great forest. There were many myths about this forest and most people avoid it, fearing that they may become lost or pixie led. It was however the quickest route and would cut down my travel time by a whole day. So it was with some trepidation and some excitement I drew into the forest along a small track.

The track seemed to be well travelled at first, but quickly became quite overgrown. I began to doubt whether or not to proceed, but decided not to turn back. It was nearing noon and the sun was radiating with its full midsummer heat. I had travelled a long way and was thirsty and hot. My clothes clung to me with sweat and even my horse was beginning to flag. After some time to my delight I found a river. This river was flowing with fresh water and had luscious vegetation growing along its banks. I guided my horse downstream until I found a wonderful pool of water next to a cascading waterfall. At last I could rest!

I tied my horse to a tree by the river and we both drank greedily from the fresh water we had so fortuitously found. It was the middle of nowhere, so I decided to strip off completely, peeling off my sticky clothes and putting them on the riverbank to dry off in the sun. With joy I jumped in the pool and swam, rejoicing in the cool water. I decided to explore a little and swam over to the waterfall, which was very loud and beautiful. I stood under the falls loosing myself in the moment, feeling the joy of the crystal clear water cascading over my tired body. Wandering by the green bank I foraged for some edible mushrooms, wild and tasty. I sat and watched the river, resting my weary body on the grassy bank. The sun was not so high in the sky, so I thought it was time to return to my journey and thanked the river for its refreshment.

As I returned to the pool I was shocked to see no sign of my horse or my clothes. I searched around for a while, thinking I must be lost. Frantically I ran through the forest searching, but to no avail. All I managed to achieve was to get lost, totally. It was now late afternoon and I was in the middle of the great forest, I was tired and frightened and lay naked against a tree.

I must have dozed for a good while, because when I came too it was dusk. The forest became eerie and I was aware of the seriousness of my predicament. I foraged around finding some wild berries to snack on and a few edible mushrooms. I found shelter in a small cave and after the initial shock became resigned to my fate. Perhaps someone would find me.

The next day was beautiful, I felt rejuvenated after spending a night in the forest. There was a slight mist in the trees and my belly told me it was time to find food and water. I spent that morning finding my bearings and by the afternoon could hear the rushing of the river. I ran towards it and jumped in, greedily drinking the fresh water. I also found plenty of food to forage on the banks and sighed in relief, I could survive.

 

For the next few weeks I stayed close to the river and made a shelter out of branches and leaves. It was simple, but joyful. I found as time went on that the wildlife approached me and accepted me into their home. My friends became the hawk and the deer and I even managed to communicate with them in a primitive way.

Summer did not last long. It was getting colder and colder by the day, the water almost too cold to swim in. My shelter did not seem up to the task of keeping me warm, so I ventured to the cave I found all those weeks ago. Life became more difficult, most of my time was spent foraging for food or walking to and from the river. The days became shorter and colder. The food became scarcer and I began to worry about the onset of winter.

To keep warm I took one last swim in the river and then rolled in the mud, caking my entire body. I found some fallen leaves, as it was now well into autumn, and rolled in them. The sun had enough heat left in it to dry me. I became clothed in the forest and it kept me a little warmer. I gathered leaves for my bed and lived like a wild man.

As food became even more scarce I began to get hungry, eating only a handful of berries each day. I was cold and weak and could not manage my trips backward and forward to the river. I collapsed outside the cave and waited for nature to take me. Then something miraculous happened. A wolf bitch and her cubs had taken residence in a nearby cave and the wolf had become an uneasy friend as we co-existed. The wolf took it on to herself not only to feed her cubs, but to feed me too. I stayed in the cave with the small family for warmth and was brought rabbit, birds, rodents and other small creatures. I slowly regained my strength and watched as the forest became white with snow.

The snow provided me with a source of water and the wolf continued to feed me throughout the winter. I learned to communicate with her using growls and grunts and when the snow had cleared ventured out into the forest again. It was now spring and the sun was beginning to have warmth. I could find mushrooms and as time went on, berries and fruit. Having spent three seasons in this forest I decided I now had my best chance of finding my way back to civilisation.

I journeyed further and further into the forest until one day found a settlement at the edge. I did not want to approach, as I was still clothed in mud and leaves. I feared that they would imprison me. Then, one day, I heard the crying of a little girl, many miles into the forest. I recognised her as one of the people from the settlement and approached her carefully. She was frightened at first, but I won her trust by offering her some wild berries. I led her out of the forest and to the settlement. I often wonder if those people developed a myth about a wild man living in the forest that rescued their child, as from then on they left food offerings at the forest edge. I took them gratefully, cooked food once again was wonderful!

I lived close to the settlement for some time and it drew into summer. The sun was hot again. I decided to venture back to the river and bath in the magical pool by the waterfall. To my amazement there was somebody else swimming. A naked man, a weary traveller. As I got closer I found that he had left his horse tied to a tree and his clothes out to dry, just as I had, all that time ago. I silently put on his clothes and stealthily untied his horse and led it onto the path. When I was clear I rode off, the next green man had arrived to take my place!

 

Galaxy Merger

Here is a picture of one of my favorite galaxies that I have classifed as a Galaxy Zoo user. It looks like a merger of two spiral galaxies. Galaxy Zoo is a way for members of the public to contribute to science by helping to classify galaxies.

SDSS 587748929235452103

Bridge over troubled water

Astoria Scum River Bridge from Jason Eppink on Vimeo.

Sacred Transsexuals embraced in enlightened tribal cultures.

Tribal cultures are much more enlightened with their approach to bigender and transgendered individuals. In Lakota culture the two-souled shaman, or Winyanktehca, is highly revered and occupies a special place in tribal society. In native Aboriginal Australian culture, the Sistergirls or yimpininni are accepted by the tribe and take a more traditional female role.

The Winkte of Lakota Culture- 

revered as a transsexual shamanka

“Sistergirls have specific roles and responsibilities in communities, mainly to do with the raising of children, looking after the home and the elderly, and at feasts and celebrations they’re usually in the thick of it with cooking and decorating.

“It’s usually considered women’s work, but sistergirls are usually valued in these roles for their flair and expertise.”

In the Tiwi Islands Sistergirls make up 4% of the population. From the Berdache people of the Native American culture to the Fa’afafine of Polynesia, transsexual and bigendered individuals often have a special place in tribal cultures.

Transsexuals are embraced by tribal cultures

In western Judeo-christian society, no such status exists and trans individuals are treated as at best mentally ill or at worst an abomination. How much better would life be if we all returned to our tribal roots- sacred nudity, total body acceptance, living in harmony with nature and a society based on mutual respect and integrity. It sounds to me that we have not been making ‘progress’ but have been the unwitting stooges of global control through the illusionary person.

Farming Humans

A maggot like race of beings is farming human kind, indeed the whole planet, for their preferred food source- negative emotions. These beings are naturally occurring ‘decomposers’ and their actual role is to recycle negative emotions and energy, a little like maggots recycle dead flesh.

These beings work through deception and conditioning. They may be no more than maggots, but when a human is disconnected from their soul, using the veil, they appear to be very powerful. These beings are known by many terms, demons, illuminate, etc, and work primarily on a rational level. They are present on the astral plane, but can control individual people totally. They have infiltrated the media and governments, and exert control over people and keep them in a state of hopeless negativity.

 

The veil mentioned above, is the artificially created veil between the worlds. It was created using alchemy. We are not supposed to live such short lives, searching for meaning, addicted to materialism. We are powerful, almost immortal spiritual beings, who have been fenced in by the veil. This device cuts us off from the spiritual reality, our true selves and our power. It makes it appear that there is no more to life than the physical and that once someone has passed over, that they are lost. Enlightenment is a natural state reached when an individual punches a hole through the veil and connects with their real power and spirit. In the coming years the entire veil will be destroyed and people will suddenly realise their true nature.

Just got a new PC

Just got a new PC, so have been a bit quiet on the posting front while all the usual teething problems are sorted out!  Things we liked on Windows Media Player




Also check out this video Crane Country

Scoof and Goose

Return to the Trees

The Naked Priestess: A Vision of the Future

A woman approaches a blue extraterrestrial craft. She is a priestess of the Tribe of the Phoenix and is about to meet an etheric being from across the galaxy. This being is one of her spirit guides and brings much love and wisdom to the new Earth.

Over the years she has developed her subtle senses enough to perceive this craft and the being inside. These craft have been with humanity since their genesis and always watch over. In dense times, such as we are currently living, such craft are only seen as brief glimpses by those momentarily sensitive to subtle energies. They are discounted by scientists and are regarded as a fringe phenomenon. They are described as UFOs, flying saucers, balls of light, fairies, spirits and ghosts. They exist on a level of reality that few can experience during our current order, but all will experience after the elevation of consciousness.

In the time of the priestess, people will be able to see these subtle phenomena as easily as we see physical structures. They will interact on a level of love at a day to day level with these beings. Some will develop their senses enough to board the craft and be taken on magnificent journeys across the universe. They will be able to elevate their cellular and thought vibrations to such a level as to become transparent to people of our current time, as if ghosts. They will then see these beings and craft as solid and interact with them accordingly.

They will use their minds to control the craft and travel in time and space in the subtle dimensions. They may be visiting us here even now, but only a few will have the subtle sight to see them. Most will perceive only a flicker or a hint of colour out of the corners of their eyes, or perhaps the feeling of a slight breath, or the gentlest of touches. Such beings are regarded as angels in our time, but are really just our descendants. Some people alive today may be able to exist at this level.

The woman was naked, and this is a key to her subtle existence. She is in harmony with nature and connects fully to the natural forces. Clothing binds us to a dense existence, it blocks our subtle energy bodies and it places a barrier between us and the world, and each other. We live in dense times, obsessed with time and rules and desensitisation. We eat heavy food, listen to loud music, are bombarded by images and bright colours, and at the same time are insulated from feeling the sun on our skin or the moss beneath our feet. She is naked to be in total union with her surroundings. She is an advanced being of great intelligence and wisdom. Her tribal living is not retrograde, but the height of subtlety.

Technology for our priestess is based on thought and direct manifestation. She lives a life of simple pleasures and as such is extremely sensitive. She can sense the pain of a daisy being picked, she can feel every blade of grass beneath her feet, every droplet of dew on her skin. For her to be clothed would be for us to wear full body armour. Everything in her world would seem like soap bubbles to us, but is more resilient than the strongest of our buildings.

This meeting is one met with joy. Under a blanket of stars she greets her guide and friend. After a brief meditation calling down the subtle powers of the nebulae and galaxies, she is ready to board the blue craft. As she does so she feels a rush of air and a sense of peace. Being in the craft is like being in a bubble bath or luxuriating on soft silk sheets. Taking her time to meditate with the crystalline energies, she holds the key to her third eye. The craft responds by gently lifting-off, like a feather on the breeze. It rises into space and she looks down upon Gaia, her home. The sunlight shines through the craft, it is like being in a giant bubble. Her energies are too subtle to be harmed by radiation or solar winds, but she does feel the gentle caress of the particle stream.

The craft moves swiftly on, past the Moon and deep into space. The energies rise in vibration until the craft seems to disappear totally. It has entered a higher state, that of the etheric realm. Together with her guide, she pilots the craft through a sea of energy. Travelling across time and space until she reaches the shores of a beautiful planet. This planet is in orbit around a giant blue sun.

She lands the craft on a beach and slowly it crystallises into more solid form. Together they leave the craft and use energy techniques to ground themselves and to solidify their forms. This is not astral travel, but the next level beyond. It is travel in mind, body and spirit. She is totally present and her physical body can solidify as much as our own.

She walks along the sandy beach and reaches a settlement. There she meets others like herself, that is physical beings. They take many forms and are from across the galaxy. This is the galactic council and she is the Gaia representative. This may sound fantastical, but it has been done before. In Lemurian times beings travelled from the Pleiades to Earth in such a fashion. By Atlantean times they had begun to loose this ability and by our time it seems like pure fantasy. But these abilities are becoming manifest. There has always been a few who could do this. The difference is that in the time of our priestess, everybody can.

The council meet to help steer Earth towards the ascension of consciousness. They are meeting in the future, but their decisions will affect us now. We will only know their guidance through meditation and think of them as angels or guides. The council will meet and act as evidenced by their presence now. The time is right for humanity to ascend.

Do your clothes control your mind?

In a sense they do control our minds.  Clothes are more than just items that protect and keep us warm- they are also symbolic. They are symbolic of the society we live in and the social constraints that we accept. Clothes reflect status, wealth and creed, in addition to carrying out their protective functions. They vary from culture to culture and from climate to climate.

 It is easy to see the social constraints provided by some clothes, uniforms for example. There are many different types of uniform; military uniform, school uniform, the wider uniform of the suit worn by so many and even the ‘uniforms’ or ‘colours’ worn by gangs. All these uniforms, even if it is the uniform of scruffiness, carry with them identification with a group and an acceptance of common ideals. Thus our clothes symbolically constrain us. They rob us of our individuality and they become masks to our true identity, just as our persona changes with particular situations.

There are many specific ‘clothing constraints’ which are worth exploring. If we use clothes in the broadest meaning, we can see how many items symbolically bind us within social rules. A wristwatch is a good example. This is a means to constrain us within our obsession with exact time. We feel obliged to run to a well-scheduled timetable and portion up our time between tasks. The rise of the mobile phone as a fashion accessory constrains us to be in contact with social rules at all times, even if we are out in the country taking time for ourselves. Technology in all shapes and forms, as a fashion accessory, constrains us to our technological culture.

Watches bind us to time

There are plenty of non-technological restraints. The neck tie, for example, worn round the throat- the centre of communication. This has been used for years as a symbol in the ’suit uniform’ and also as a symbolic restraint of expressing our true selves. Many of these constraints are related to particular areas of the body. In Eastern thought, there exist mystical energy centres called chakras. Each chakra has a particular function and is related to a particular area of the body. It will be of no surprise to find that the throat chakra is concerned with communication.

 

Chakra literally means ‘wheel’ or ‘vortex’. In oriental countries and increasingly in the West, chakras are recognised as centres for our vital life-force energy called ‘Chi.’ These centres are joined by meridians that run all over our bodies. Acupuncture and Shiatsu both work on these meridians and there is much written about meridians and chakras. A trip to your local bookshop will provide you with a plethora of books on the subject. Not all people agree with the positions and functions of each chakra and I have provided a general outline that may vary in small respects from one opinion to another.

If we explore the chakras, we will see how each is constrained and also make some interesting discoveries. There are seven main chakras. Each has a particular colour associated with it and they form a continuous energy flow through the body. In Chinese medicine, if these centres are out of balance, illness is the result. One of the best ways to upset the balance is to constrain a chakra and this can be done symbolically through clothes. Let us explore each chakra in turn.

First we have the base chakra, which is deep red in colour. It is situated at the base of the spine and is our connection with the earth. It is our centre of security and it is vital that it is unconstrained so that we can connect with nature. The two energy sources, the earth and heaven (or the sun) are connected through the chakra system, the earth by the base chakra and heaven by the crown chakra.

An important point about this chakra is its proximity to the second, or gonadal chakra, which is the centre of our sensuality, sexuality and reproduction. In most societies this chakra is the most closely guarded and constrained. Even if we reveal all our other chakras- we must not reveal our second chakra. Unfortunately, due to the proximity to the base chakra, it is also constrained. If we wear swim-shorts or underwear, these chakras are both blocked.

This brings us to another subtle observation, the confusion of nudity with sexual desire. Being truly Naked is the act of being totally unconstrained by symbolic clothing and being at one with heaven and earth. One of the most important chakras needed to accomplish this is the base chakra. If we cover this up then there is no connection with the earth.

Being truly Naked is the act of being totally unconstrained by symbolic clothing and being at one with heaven and earth.
 

The next chakra is the Solar Plexus chakra, the centre of our being. It is yellow in colour and is symbolically restrained in western society most of the time. This chakra represents our ego and self-interest. Money belts are worn round the waist. In more open and relaxed (and warmer) cultures it is acceptable to show this chakra.

Above the Solar Plexus chakra lies the Heart chakra, which is bright green in colour. It is the centre of love and emotions ‘the heart ruling the head’. It is also constrained in western society, and societies that value the intellect. It is less so in warmer climates and in places where intuition is favoured over intellect. Think of the Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree with a bare chest.

Buddha with open heart

The Throat chakra is next, it is sky blue in colour and is the centre of communication and self expression. It is constrained in certain situations, such as when using a tie, but in more relaxed situations is uncovered. When we are expected to tow a party line, or act within a company policy, ties are often used. You can almost sense people trying to escape from well-tightened ties.

Do ties stifle communication?

The next chakra lies in the space between the eyes, diametrically opposite the pituitary gland. It is the centre of the intellect and is prized in western culture. It is nearly always uncovered, apart from in situations where one is not encouraged to think for oneself (uniformed services, etc.)

Why do monks shave their heads?

Finally, we have the crown chakra, our connection with heaven. This is also prized and left uncovered in western society, as we prefer connection with heaven to our connection with earth. It is interesting to note that some monks shave their head. Perhaps this allows the crown chakra to open fully, thus allowing a deeper connection with heaven? As we can see, each chakra has a particular function and most cultures constrain them to varying degrees. Those covered and those uncovered give us a clue to the culture, whether it is ruled by emotions, or the intellect and whether it allows freedom to communicate.  In societies that frown upon nudity, we see a society that does not like the idea of free thinking, fully open individuals. It is your birth-rite to allow the full opening of the chakras and to be your true self.

Be free! Burn your clothes!

Is Religion the Greatest Protection Racket?

Is religion a protection racket, or does it provide a genuine service to mankind?  I, like many, have had a very negative view of religion, preferring instead to be ‘spiritual’. Religion, I thought, was all about control, causing wars, creating division. It may cause wars and create division, it may also exert control, but religion does have a purpose.

I recently had a dream in which I was in a large meadow. At the top of this meadow was a church and the pastor was busy making a white picket fence. I went over and asked about the fence, he said it was to ‘keep the badness out’.

This is what religion is really all about, protection. It protects us from malevolence, whether it be in the form of other humans, supernatural beings like daemons and vampires, or our own inner darkness. That is why religions have so many rules, they form a psychic defence system, they are the spiritual police.

Religions primary purpose is protection, it is not about finding out spiritual truths. Walking a spiritual path is about finding out these truths, like who am I? What, if anything, can I do about it? What is the nature of the universe? The spiritual path can be perilous and some chose to work within the framework of a religion in order to walk a spiritual path. Thus they are protected and can explore the deeper philosophical questions.

This was illustrated during the same dream. I arrived at a country road and a large group of Zen monks were on a pilgrimage. Walking along the road was not safe, as they could get run over by a car, but in the large group they were safer. Finding out spiritual truths is always inherently risky, but can be made safer if you do so in a group.

The safety of religion and the freedom of spirituality represent a compromise. If you want total safety, you sacrifice your freedom, effectively imprisoning yourself. On the other hand, if you want total spiritual freedom, you become open to possible attack by compromising safety.

It is a little like the anti virus and firewall applications on your computer. They slow it down, filter what you can access, and even cause it to crash. We still use them because of the fear of a possible threat and the knowledge that such a threat could destroy all our data and steal all our personal information. In the end we come to some sort of compromise, security versus usefulness.

Religion is very paternal and likes its rules and regulations. It is the policeman of the psyche and as such is a protector, but is often not wanted as many find the structure too constrictive and opt to go it alone. Most religion is largely based on fear, but this fear is not always unfounded. Most of the time there is no need for its protection, but when at times it is needed, then you will be glad its there.

If you decide to go it alone, beware, as the Universe is full of beings; some powerful, some benevolant, some just playing tricks and others that will eat you for breakfast. Whatever you decide to do, it is worth finding out what is really out there.

as Hamlet said
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”